Christopher Varghese
Senior Associate - Projects
Kochi
Summary
A multi-tasking Professional with over 11.6 years of qualitative experience in formulating strategic plans & implementations of IT Infrastructure Projects Supports & Network Security Administrations, established entire operations with Key focus on IT Management, Network Operations, Network Monitoring, Client Management, of Highly Dedicated Supports to fulfill any projects works and tasks in order to avoid the Critical Business impacts
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education
4
4
Certifications
Work History
Senior Associate
CTS
02.2022 - Current
- Currently working on Palo Alto (800,30XX,50XX Series Firewalls) and VM Series devices.
- Configuring and troubleshooting F5 LTM (local Traffic Manager).
- Worked of different load balancing methods in F5.
- Node and Pool management in F5.
- F5 device configuration and management.
- Worked on configuring, designing and troubleshooting security policies, NAT policies, routing and different failover mechanisms on Palo Alto firewalls.
- Configuring, troubleshooting and monitoring Palo Alto Firewalls from central management device Panorama.
- Experience in Configuring Interface,Zones and Qos Settings
- Configure App-ID and URL Filtering for allowing or denying the Web Traffic and also prevent Hosts from accessing malicious Websites.
- Troubleshooting GP VPN related issues.
- Troubleshooting connectivity related issues.
- Periodic PAN OS upgrade on Palo Alto firewalls,log collectors and Panorama and update device certificates.
- Periodic upgrade of Global Protect Client software.
- Configured IPsec site to site tunnels.
- Firewall Rule Optimization on monthly basis and sending report to higher management.
- Added new firewalls to Panorama for centralized management.
- Removing/Decommissioning of Firewalls.
- Took part in migrating existing Global Protect VPN users to another Global Protect VPN firewalls.
- Handling and resolving tickets and strong hands-on experience on ticketing tools such as Service Now.
- Experience in working on Algosec tool to stage and implement rules on firewalls.
Technical Lead
Wipro
10.2021 - 02.2022
- Worked on Palo Alto Firewalls (5220,3220,850) Panorama M 100 and VM appliances.
- Used Panorama Device for Administration and management of Palo Alto Firewalls.
- Troubleshoot HA related issues.
- Configure security and NAT rules on Firewalls.
- Configured URL based and Application based Policies.
- Security rule cleanup/Optimization on monthly basis.
- Troubleshoot IPsec VPN related issues.
- Upgrade Pan OS versions on Palo Alto Firewalls/Panorama. Worked on service now tickets raised by customers.
- Worked on migrating M 100 Physical Panorama to virtual appliances.
- Experience in handling and resolving tickets and strong hands-on experience on ticketing tools such as Service Now
Senior Network Support Engineer
RM Educations
07.2015 - 10.2021
- Expertise in TCP/IP, Subnetting, Network Diagrams, Documentation and troubleshooting L2, L3 connectivity issues.
- Extensive knowledge in configuring and deploying Next Generation Palo Alto.
- Defining and Managing firewall policies.
- Intermediate level knowledge on configuring and troubleshooting IPSec VPN and SSL VPN tunnels for connectivity between site-site and remote location users by using IKE and PKI.
- Strong knowledge on leveraging advanced firewalls features like APP-ID, User-ID, Global Protect, Wild Fire, NAT policies and Security Profiles.
- Gathering user activity reports from firewall(Palo Alto/Smoothwall) as per request.
- Hands-on experience in implementing layer3 security through IPSEC tunneling, Access lists, NAT, PAT.
- Extensive Knowledge on group policy configuration and management for DCs, member servers, workstations and users.
- Azure network experience, VPN and Express route, Azure DNS, Traffic Manager, and Load Balancers.
- Take ownership and provide 2nd level support of escalated incidents, requests and changes and ensure its prompt and efficient resolution is met within SLA.
- Keep the technical documents network diagrams, inventory and knowledge base updated.
Lab Engineer
Microsoft India Private Limited
09.2014 - 06.2015
- Provision and Administer Hyper V host, Guest OS with SCVMM 2012 SP1 admin console.
- Manage and Administer private cloud in Hyper V infrastructure.
- Managed Microsoft TMG (Threat management gateway).
- Monitoring VM deployments and troubleshooting issues related to VM deployment failures.
- Used critical thinking to break down problems, evaluate solutions and make decisions.
- Part of 24/7 support team; rotated with other team members to address concerns and issues cascaded by customers from different time zones.
System and Network Administrator
Applexus Technologies Private Limited
04.2012 - 09.2014
- Create Change and delete user accounts as per request.
- Installed, configured and supported local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) and Internet system.
- Hands on experience managing WatchGuard firewall.
- Performed server management and administration, setting user permissions, AD settings.
- Created user accounts and group policies and also troubleshoot the existing GPOs.
- Backed up company data to distributed storage centers to avoid massive data loss in the event of network breach or failure.
- Performed daily checks of the IT related equipment.
- Constructed and maintained Virtual Local area network (VLAN).
Education
B Tech - Computer Science
College Of Engineering Adoor
Adoor 06.2003 - 06.2007
Skills
Firewall : Palo Alto, FortiGate, Smooth wall, WatchGuard, F5 LTM
Networking: TCP/IP, IPv4/v6, VPN, VLSM, OSPF, EIGRP, ACLs, VPN, NAT/PAT, DHCP, STP, VTP, VLAN, N
Hardware : Palo Alto Firewalls - 52xx Series, 32xx series, 800 Series, VM SeriesCisco Routers - 1900/2000 series, Cisco Switches - 2960/3650 series, F5 LTM iseries
Cloud: Google Apps for Education Microsoft Azure Administration Knowledge
Virtualization: VMWare Hyper-V
Active Directory: Experience working in an Enterprise Server Environment with Active Directory Domain Services (Windows 2003 or higher) Strong understanding and practical experience using of group policy for server management
Scripting: Intermediate knowledge in PowerShell scripting
Good understanding in Service Now Operations as per ITIL-Standards
Certification
Palo Alto Certified Network Security Engineer PCNSE
Professional Attribute
- A high standard of professionalism in my work.
- Team Player.
- Willingness to learn.
- Active listener.
- Flexible
Declaration
I hearby declare that the above-mentioned information is correct up to my knowledge and i bear the responsibility for its correctness.
Christopher Varghese
27/07/2024
Timeline
Senior Associate
CTS
02.2022 - Current
Technical Lead
Wipro
10.2021 - 02.2022
Palo Alto Certified Network Security Engineer PCNSE
01-2021
Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate AZ 104
01-2021
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900
01-2021
Google App Administrator
10-2016
Senior Network Support Engineer
RM Educations
07.2015 - 10.2021
Lab Engineer
Microsoft India Private Limited
09.2014 - 06.2015
System and Network Administrator
Applexus Technologies Private Limited
04.2012 - 09.2014
B Tech - Computer Science
College Of Engineering Adoor
06.2003 - 06.2007
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